The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Any landing from which you can walk away . . .

. . . is supposed to be a 'good' landing - but I'm not sure whether the occupants would describe this one in those terms, even though they survived! According to Flight Global, yesterday this Cessna Citation III business jet overran the runway at Sao Paolo airport in Brazil at high speed, crashing down an embankment and coming to rest at the edge of the road skirting the airport. See for yourself.

Yep . . . that was going fast, all right! That runway has a reputation for being very short, and slippery when wet. In 2007 TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, skidded off the same runway in rainy weather, bounced all the way across the same road, and struck a warehouse. The subsequent explosion killed all 187 people on board plus 12 on the ground. It was Brazil's deadliest air crash to date.

It didn't "land". You have to safely exit the runway under control (or stop), for it to be considered a landing. Anything else is labeled a crash. If the pilot runs the aircraft into something while taxiing to the terminal/ramp after a successful landing, that is a ground handling incident.